No. 2, 2014 Mining & Metallurgy Engineering Bor 117 MINING AND METALLURGY INSTITUTE BOR ISSN: 2334-8836 UDK: 622 UDK: 669.215/.22/.872/.65(045)=20 DOI:10.5937/MMEB1402117K Ana Kostov * , Aleksandra Milosavljević * , Radiša Todorović * , Lidija Gomidželović * LEAD-FREE ALLOYS FOR ECOLOGICAL SOLDERS MANUFACTURING ** Abstract Although the European Union’s directive about environment protection as WEEE and RoHS have been carried out in 2003, led solders are still in used in Serbia. In the aim to respect the European and world directives and laws, it is necessary to reduce a quantity of toxic element and to establish lead and cadmium free solders in production. In this paper it was presented lead-free alloys, which are used for ecological solders manufacturing and various applications. Keywords: ecological solders, lead-free alloys, silver, gold, tin, indium. * Mining and Metallurgy Institute Bor, Zeleni bulevar 35, Bor, Serbia, e-mail: ana.kostov@irmbor.co.rs, aleksandra.milosavljevic@irmbor.co.rs, khurgan@ptt.rs, lgomidzelovic@yahoo.com ** The research presented in this paper has been done in the frame of the projects: “Development of ecological knowledge-based advanced materials and technologies for multifunctional application” No 34005 and “Modern multi-component metal systems and nanostructured materials with different functional properties” No 172037 financed by Ministry of Education, Science and Technological De- velopment of the Republic of Serbia; as well as the project MIS ETC Code 1409, title “Promoting new ecologic filler alloys for soldering, based on the non-ferrous ore of the Romanian-Serbian cross- border area” within the Romania – Republic of Serbia IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Programme. INTRODUCTION On July 1, 2006 the European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equip- ment Directive (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) came into effect prohibiting the intentional addition of lead to most consumer elec- tronics produced in the EU [1]. California is recently adopted a RoHS law [2] and China has a version as well. Manufactur- ers in the U.S. are received tax benefits by reducing the use of lead-based solder. With the Europeans WEEE Directive now mandating a phase out of lead in elec- tronic soldering and Japan's efforts to do the same even sooner, lead-free is rapidly taking on momentum around the world. Namely, the available evidence indicates that measures on the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as set out in Directive 2002/96/EC of 27 January 2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste electrical and electronic equipment [1] are necessary to reduce the waste management problem linked to the heavy metals concerned and the flame retar- dants concerned. In spite of those measures, however, significant parts of WEEE will continue to be found in the current disposal routes. Even if WEEE were collected sepa- rately and submitted to recycling processes, its content of mercury, cadmium, lead and